It is because they chose to slow play it, unless you have a report suggesting otherwise? Were there multiple early attempts?
They didn’t even meet with his agent on the occasions when they were in the same town (Dhaliwal). They also chose to sign Miller first and let Horvat hang.
They let him torch the league and completely squander their early negotiating position. Would you call that smart management?
You are mixing up a lot of things here, and making a ton of assumptions, just to blame management. Its a bad take.
Look at my posting history. I originally wanted to sign Horvat over Miller. I thought this because I thought Miller would want at least 8.5 mil x 8. I thought Horvat would come in around Schenn money of 6.5 mil.
Now with Hindsight (yes I can admit its hindsight) I can say it was so much better to sign JT and market value to slightly below market value, than Bo at way above market value. This is good management.
How do you know it was managements decision to slow play and not Horvat betting on himself? Do you think management maybe said we are not signing Horvat for above what we think is market value?
It takes two parties to come to the table... but lets just blame management.